Sunday, August 22, 2004

Old Guns and Cheap Ammo

Just to make sure people know where I'm coming from, I've never bought a new gun.

Part of the reason is finances. New guns, especially good guns, cost bookoo bucks. The other part is simply the fact that I like older guns. You will not find a new Springfield M1903. They stopped making them years ago. The only ones out there are used. You will not find a brand new SKS. They were replaced by the AK-47. So if you want an SKS, you have to buy it used.

However, buying used guns has it's disadvantages, wear and tear being formost among them. My old SKS is a Yugoslavian model, and it's probably 50 years old. I have no idea how many rounds have been put through that barrel. Hell, I've put over 5,000 rounds through my Marlin .22 since I got it, and I got it used.

And, of course, one of the side effects of putting that many rounds through the gun is that your accuracy eventually starts to degrade. And that's what I thought had happened to my SKS. I had put quite a few rounds through it, and I couldn't get any kind of decent shot groups. Hell, I had my girlfriend put rounds through it and she couldn't do any better. No matter what I tried, I just couldn't get any kind of consistancy in my shot groupings. And I know that I'm not that bad a shot, as my other shot groups with different guns can attest.

However, I never once thought about the ammo I was using. Analog Kid handed me two stripper clips of ammo, and I produced this:



You can count 'em if you want, that's twenty holes. I put my hand there to give you an idea of what the shot grouping was like. A twenty round shot group that fits under the palm of my hand.

Hot damn, there's life in the old gun yet! AK, you gotta let me know what kind of ammo that was. I'd say those are pretty good results.

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